Early in December a Russian Spetsnaz intelligence officer spoke about Ukrainian tanks with welded hatches. The practice is for Ukrainian Army officers to weld shut the commander’s hatch after the occupants are inside.

Left without an opportunity to retreat or escape the tactic leaves the unfortunate tank crew no choice but t fight and if necessary be destroyed with their vehicle. The same practice was employed by the British Royal Navy in World War I. Sailors, many of them teenagers were locked into gun turrets and often destroyed in the fighting or sealed in their ‘coffins’ went down fighting with their ship.

NOVOSELOVSKAYA (LPR), December 3 – RIA Novosti. Tank and military vehicle crews have used their wits to escape their fate. Ukrainian tank crews, who were welded or otherwise locked into their vehicles from the outside in their own tanks, inch forward in a non-threatening manner with lowered guns. As they do so, they then turn away the tank’s gun and gradually stop.

Waiting until their vehicle is approached by cautious Russian troops the trapped crews then tap the SOS signal on the armour from the inside. A Russian intelligence officer of the Western Military District in the village of Novoselovskaya in the LPR told RIA Novosti.

According to him, the Russian military found tanks, combat armoured vehicles and armoured personnel carriers, in which the Ukrainian military was welded in from all sides.

‘That is, everything was done so that the crew could not leave the car. They forcibly made suicide bombers out of them. But they also want to live,’ the agency’s interlocutor recalls.

According to the Russian, he saw the actions of Ukrainian tankers in such a situation both in photographs and with his own eyes.

‘They turn the turret (with a cannon. – Ed.) back, slowly drive to our positions and stop, turn off the engine. Shouts and blows are heard from the tank. Basically, they hit three short ones – three long ones – three short ones, that is, an SOS signal. Our technicians are pulling them out of there,’ the commando added.

The blocked Ukrainians, as the Russian military noted, for the most part, are no longer fighting as ‘they understand that this is certain death.’

Russia has been conducting a military operation in Ukraine since February 24. Vladimir Putin called its task ‘the protection of people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years.’ According to him, the ultimate goal is the liberation of Donbass and the creation of conditions that guarantee the security of Russia.